The Color Blue

I know that personal computers are notoriously unreliable, but I've rarely had this experience at home, and a part of me has always been somewhat skeptical that computers are really that difficult. Last night I unpacked the new Dell and turned it on with my wife. The experience was pleasant with Windows XP guiding us through a few screens of basic questions and then starting up without issue. We plugged in the cable modem to the USB port and Windows asked us for the CD with the drivers. We inserted the CD and the modem was configured. We then changed changed a network setting and... oh no, the "blue screen of death"!

To be honest, I've not seen that screen in a few years, and was somewhat amused. Unfortunately, the computer would not start up again, as the BIOS was unable to detect the hard drive anymore. After an hour speaking to a nice man with a Texan drawl, it was decided that the hard drive was faulty and a new one would be shipped. So much for splurging on the second day delivery option.

To recap: Computer starts, runs five minutes, blue screen, dead.

The funny thing is, I'm not that upset -- I've come to understand why quality is given short shrift in hardware and software. Hopefully the law of averages will protect me and the next disk is functional.